This is Northside / Servant Leader & Mental Health

As thousands of students head back to
school and into classrooms this fall, many carry with them more than books and backpacks. I feel like a lot of students are really stressed now look it’s bad and bad stress. Anxiety and stress are growing problems in schools across the country. I get really bad anxiety, like I like
last time I school I had a anxiety attack, but like it gets me like
really stressed the point where I feel like I’m gonna cry or like I’m gonna
bring down and I know other students get it worse than I do. If you look at the
numbers in Northside alone, 536 students are seen by counselors because of some
sort of personal crisis. 16 students threatened to hurt themselves and one
student actually attempts suicide every day. There’s performance stress there’s
academic stress there’s just life stress and so our goal today and in Northside
schools is to teach young people what to do when they are stressed. Words thoughts
questions. One way they are doing that is counselors and coaches teaming up to help students tackle the issue of mental health. Whether it’s stress, anxiety,
depression, or thoughts of suicide. This summer it started with giving
athletes at the annual Servant Leadership Summit a different kind of
playbook. And we’re equipping them with phrases they can use we’re equipping the questions that they can ask so that they can be a great friend because the
leaders aren’t afraid of hard conversations. They’re not afraid of hard
truths and so we’re equipping them to equipping them to deal with those hard things. It’s based
on the idea that student athletes influence and support their peers on the
practice field and in the halls. And that students are more likely to talk to each other about stress or anxiety and not an adult. So we can replace negative
strategies with healthy coping strategies because a little bit of life
stress is okay and it’s probably a good thing but we’ve got to teach young
people how to cope with that stress. Well we’re out here so anytime okay all right remember I’m not just on random person, I’m here counselor. And even if an
adult’s may not be the first person a student turns to for help
counselors want students to know there are people who care. Just knowing us just having that relationship knowing if they need
something who they can talk to. What’s beginning today is gonna give hope to a lot of kids that don’t have it. That they’re gonna they’re gonna be told
today that they’re not broken and that there’s no shame in their struggle. Come greet your counselors. Certified counselors are at every Northside school,
if you or your child needs support please reach out to your school’s
counselor. Or call our 24-hour Safeline at (210) 3-9-7-S-A-F-E